Bosnian Army and Croats Drive Serbs Out of a Town

By CHUCK SUDETIC,

Published: November 4, 1994

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nov. 3—
In their most significant military success since the war here began, Bosnian Army and Croatian military units captured the town of Kupres today, driving out the Bosnian Serb forces who overran it in April 1992 with the help of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Army, local news reports said.

Croatia's official news agency reported tonight that units of the Bosnian Croat militia, the Croatian Defense Council, had advanced northeastward into Kupres along a main highway, overrunning Serbian defensive positions and reaping significant quantities of abandoned Serbian weapons and ammunition.

Contingents of the mostly Muslim Bosnian Army entered the town from the northeast after taking a key high ground on Wednesday, the Sarajevo television said.

The Bosnian Serbs' news agency said tonight that Serbian forces had lost at least a part of the town. Serbian civilians were evacuated from Kupres days ago.

"Our forces have tactically pulled back to new positions and are prepared for their defense and a counteroffensive," the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, said in a televised interview tonight. "We'll see what happens next."

"I think it's good that we're going to go at it with everything we have and not continue this state of no peace, no war," Mr. Karadzic said, warning again of a coming major counterstrike against the Bosnian Army. "We must break the back of the Muslim army."

United Nations officials in Sarajevo, citing a lack of access for their military monitors in the Kupres area, said they could not confirm that the town had fallen and, as of this morning, could offer no confirmation that the Croatian Defense Council had attacked the Serbs.

United Nations officials here said there is no sign of a Bosnian Serb counteroffensive anywhere in the country despite Mr. Karadzic's threats of a coming attack. "This is not Mladic's style," said a United Nations official, referring to the commander of the Bosnian Serb army, Gen. Ratko Mladic.

Kupres was populated mostly by Croats before the war, though the surrounding district's 10,000 people were 51 percent Serbian.

Once the town and nearby hilltops are secured, the Bosnian Army and Croats will control a key highway between central Bosnia and the main Croatian seaport at Split. Until now, all truck traffic to central Bosnia has had to travel over unpaved roads through mountainous areas.

The Bosnian Army and Croatian Defense Council fought a yearlong war in central Bosnia before the United States brokered a truce and a federation agreement between Muslim and Croat leaders this spring.

The capture of Kupres marks a new high point in military cooperation between the army and the Croatian militia. It remains unclear, however, how closely the operation around Kupres was coordinated. Bosnian Croat militia leaders had until now refused to join the Bosnian Army in combined attacks, and there is nothing yet to indicate that they will do so again.

Mr. Karadzic called cooperation between the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defense Council near Kupres a "temporary coalition of local interests."

"There is great antagonism between them," Mr. Karadzic said, expressing doubt that the Croats would join the Bosnian Army in military operations elsewhere in Bosnia. "They'll go back to war some day, sooner or later."

United Nations officials said the Bosnian Army has used the last two days to consolidate its recent gains near the northwestern Muslim enclave of Bihac and press ahead through the town of Bosanska Krupa, where Serbian forces have been surrounded.

Photo: In a two-pronged assault, Muslim-led Government forces and their Bosnian Croat allies reportedly captured the town of Kupres, driving out the Bosnian Serb forces who overran it in April 1992. Bosnian Croat soldiers passed a ruined house in Malovan en route to Kupres. (Associated Press) Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina, illustrating the current areas of control, shows the location of Kupres.